EFFECTS OF THE CORONAVIRUS ON A SMALL BUSINESS - DAY 4 (20/03/2020)

So before we get onto today at Contact Left, the government have announced that they will pay 80% of wages for laid off staff, this is a relief that if we have to lay people off they will still get some money however the whole reason for this blog is too keep people in work not lay them off. The biggest drama we have is trying to keep people in work but have them working from home especially as this seems to be getting worse by the day.

We can’t do much of our work at home especially the manufacturing but today we made a Facemask that you would use a household product to put inside and it will give some filtration. Information on this link https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/best-materials-make-diy-face-mask-virus/ will give you details on the research they have published but please do your own, you don’t have to buy a Face Mask from us, have a look at the above link and make your own, but please share the item alongside this blog https://www.contactleft.co.uk/reusable-uk-manufactured-face-mask-with-filtration-pocket.html

This is an item we can teach members of staff to make using a domestic sewing machine and they could make them at home, we need enough orders for this to be feasible but even a few orders right now will help keep us going. Your thoughts on what you think of the product would be good.

So everyone is pulling out all the stops, the slowdown in sales has allowed us to market the Hand Sanitiser to big companies and we are still looking for the massive orders, the price will go up on the 29^th of March from the manufacturers but we WILL STILL ONLY APPLY THE NORMAL MARGIN. People are phoning complaining that it’s a 3 week wait but there is nothing I can do about that. Someone phoned on Monday and didn’t order when there was only a 2 week wait and today wants to order but gets irate when I say it’s now a 3 week wait from placing the order. The hand sanitiser is UK manufactured and 100’s of thousands of bottles are being ordered weekly from the manufacturers, I don’t have the cash to order any until the £22000 order I put in is delivered and paid for and the only extra I can order is what’s paid for.

One of our key members of staff will be unable to continue to work as they have a young child who has come out of nursery and even if we can argue the case that they are a protected job and get their child in nursery we would be lying as her role will not affect our delivery of goods to the Public Services, that is unless we have sickness or staff off in other areas so it’s a complete nightmare but we do have others that can help out at the moment.

Contact Left Limited never shuts its doors to the Public really (Only odd days), I have opened every Christmas Day 0900 – 1300 for the last however many years and even made a few sales but tomorrow this will not happen. I will still go over and print labels at some point and will be available on the phone but the shop will be shut. We will look at working extra on Sunday and being more efficient.

The effects on us today UK sales dropped, international sales risen, lots of people phoning up from people who are reading this blog so please keep sharing it and sending ideas in, without everyone doing this we would not be doing half of what we are doing. Any big or small companies needing hand sanitiser (and everyone else) send them Contact Left's way. Thanks David